Apropos of nothing in particular, J.D. Irving Ltd. of Saint John, New Brunswick, has donated $8,900 to the Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador since 2003 (inclusive).

This sum includes a $5,000 contribution in the 2008 filing year, figures which were just recently released by Elections Newfoundland and Labrador. That $5,000 is one of the largest single political contributions in the 2008 records, and the largest that J.D. Irving has given to the PC Party since records have been made available on the intertubes.

During that same time period, Irving has given exactly nothing to any other provincial party, or, in words that some might find easier to understand, goose egg. The last time they did was a decade ago, during the 1999 election campaign ($10,000 to the Liberals, $2000 to Liberal candidate Kelvin Parsons.)

Since ODP became leader of The Party in 2001, individual Irving operators have donated an additional $800 to the party’s coffers or the election campaigns of individual election or by-election candidates, including to John Babb and Dave Denine in the 2003 general election, and to the PC by-election candidate in 2001 in Humber West.

I just find it remarkable that the near-monopoly media magnates of New Brunswick have been trying to stick it to Danny through a combination of media coverage and... and... and giving money to him and The Party.

If you're out to get Danny — which presumably means you're out to get NewfoundlandLabrador or something — I can think of more productive ways of doing so than subsidizing his political wing.

Why would any responsible media outlet in New Brunswick report the comments, regardles sof who owned them?

The comments are hysterical - that's being polite - for the most part and are almost entirely without any foundation in fact. The only bits that are factual are that there is a sale and he gets the names of the parties right. Everything else: hysteria.

Heck, the guy even contradicts himself in the course of several different scrums as to whether or not there is an issue.

The telegram editorial today even demolished the arguments he's been offering.